Inside a gifted class: Classroom discourse patterns, teacher and student questions, and teacher revoicing

Abstract

This study examined how classroom discourse evolved in a gifted class and compared it with a non-gifted class at the same year level. The following features of classroom discourse were examined: Initiation - Response - Follow up (IRF) patterns, teacher and student questions, and teacher revoicing. To conduct the study, audiorecordings of classroom interactions in the subject of mathematics were collected over a six week period from a private elementary school that housed both gifted (n=20) and non-gifted (n=20) classes in Turkey. The findings indicated that both the gifted and the non-gifted classes were dominated by IRF interaction patterns. Nevertheless, extended IRF and student-initiated IRF sequences were more prevalent in the gifted classroom. Moreover, a greater number of authentic teacher questions were noted in the gifted classroom, and gifted students asked more on-topic questions. In terms of teacher revoicing, both incorporation and restatements were more common in the non-gifted classroom.